Mr. Scheepers talks and episodes I enjoy and rewatch. There needs to be a movie made about his Life. The operations the Rhodesians (SAS, Selous Scouts & RLI) pulled off are nothing short of extraordinary.
Can listen to Andre all day long. So humble but speaks more sense than most. We all played our part, but we knew nothing of some of the ops that this warrior took part in and in many cases led. Thanks Andre and congrats to Hannes and John for allowing this hero “free reign “ to speak on all subjects. No doubt he still has more to offer.
For we lived and we died and we cried , for we could have done better and we could have done far worse. Walk tall Rhodesians for we did the best of what we could . It was definitely David versus Goliath . We shall always remember them and be grateful for their sacrifice ! Tatenda Andre , Hannes and John for these memories brought together for us all to remember and reflect on . Be it good or bad happy or sad , we did the best what we could have given the circumstances Rhodesia was up against ! Andre you did us proud and you are a fine soldier and officer . Much respect to you and thank you for coming back time and time again to share your views and experiences. 🙏🏻
A few years ago I read a comment from someone, that what was happening now in Britain, and the other western countries was gods judgement for what they had done to his people in Rhodesia , and South Africa , some would sneer at this. , but not me …! Best wishes Andre, Hannes, and John , from Belfast 🇬🇧
Or is it the Exact SAME people who brought down Rhodesia and South Africa, moving on to destroy other Anglo or Western countries..? because our enemies were no more British than they were Rhodesian.. but they would LOVE your confusion and your schadenfreude toward their new victims: Divide and Rule, always their strategy against us.
Springbok series from 76-80 and Gysie Pienaar had that position in 80. I don't agree with your comment as good as Leroy was that he was an upcoming Springbok.
Great comments Andre. Sadly the Rhodesian soldier and NCOs would never back down from a fight and more often than not the Officers made the wise choices!
Thanks Hannes and Andre for this amazing interview. Something I have always wondered about since reading your book is the 2MOA requirement. I have an all original FAL from the mid70 here in Luxembourg and I find it very hard to shoot a 2 MOA Group. It is roughly a 3 MOA rifle with normal ammunition.
Thanks gents, interesting history and insights. A question on the Gweru attack on Thornhill and who was the driving force behind it. I recall an earlier episode on this channel where the raid and the aftermath was discussed, as well as the subsequent mistreatment and imprisonment of the white officers at the time. It has been widely speculated all over after the fact that SADF were involved, but here Andre briefly says' that we destroyed' speaking to the aircraft. Excuse me if I have made a 1+1=11 calculation but it would be interesting to know more, or if there is an episode that speaks directly to this Operation I have missed, perhaps direct me there. Many thanks Excerpt from the SA Truth commission below. "Zimbabwean agents and SADF Special Forces operatives were involved in the attack on the Thornhill airforce base near Gweru on 25 July 1982, in which thirteen fighter trainers of the Zimbabwe Air Force were destroyed. Four senior air force officers, including Air Vice-Marshall Hugh Slatter, were arrested for this operation. Under torture, they confessed their involvement but were acquitted when the trial judge deemed their confessions inadmissible. They were almost certainly not involved. Evidence gathered by the Commission suggests that this operation was undertaken by a South African Special Forces group led by a long-serving member of the Recces operating as an agent in Zimbabwe. The Commission has the names of four SADF Special Forces operatives who participated in that attack."
Thanks Andre & Hannes. Do you not think that the loss of Puma 164, was a big influence on Walls to pull the pin on the Operation and withdraw? The loss of 164 had a massive effect on Civilian morale once the news broke and I can imagine that a huge amount of pressure would have been brought to bear on Walls to withdraw. Secondly, I would imagine that SA could not have been charmed that they had lost one of their Pumas that the International community would have been all over them for such overt support. Finally, Andre you hit the nail directly in your observation that there were no stop groups to the rear of Mapai.
Hannes, reading Taki's column in his magazine recently, he made a very favourable mention about you, claiming you'll make a better action hero than Mel Gibson! Small world. Thanks for a great channel.
Great again. War of any kind is a compex issue and is affected by your role in it. Variables are enourmous and personalities make decisions from their perspective of the issue at hand. My opinion is that the senior heirarcy were so used to the rhodesian soldier winning most battles failed to see the changing times of vastly improved opposition. But hindsight is always easy.
Absolutely correct, senior leaders like Politicians and Generals should dictate policy - that's all, that's enough. Strategy needs to be left to operational leaders, Colonels and Majors...the people that know what resources are available to best enact policy in light of the intel on enemy resources. Tactics should be left to leaders who will be on the ground and in the fight, Captains and Lieutenants....what good ever came from a General dipping into other people's specialisms? That's what ranks are for surely? The truth is, every army, in every war - has Generals, who were promoted up the ranks - who can't help themselves, they can't stop interfering in the work of their Colonels and Majors.....and some of those can't stop interfering in the work of Captains. Poor old Lieutenants - getting it in the ear from Captain's and Sergeants 🤣😂
I prefer this sort of analysis to just hearing tales of derring-do. A downside of being a snall army was that the senior officers were the least experienced ito the current war.
John Borrowdale was (hopefully still is) a delightful guy! A veterinarian, I had the pleasure of being with (and Rich Stannard) on Course 160D at School of Inf. He was posted, I think, to one of the indep companies, so to learn that he ended up in the Squadron is excellent, if unsurprising, news. He, Rich and Mike Ross were the chaps clearly destined to do well beyond Hooters and prove themselves where it really mattered.
Thanks very much Angus for filling in this piece of the puzzle for me. It would not shock me to learn that you were either an instructor or a participant on that course!@@angushamilton2077
@John van Zyl Great series, the Rhodesian okes can certainly hold their heads high, an amazing bunch of guys, thank you. Do you not by any chance have an interview with Green Leader? I note that he has passed on c. 2011 but from the videos of Ops Gatling, I wld love to hear him? All the best, keep it going, very enjoyable.
According to Wikipedia: 'In 1981, the Air Force of Zimbabwe ordered 8 eight Hawk MK60s, which were delivered in July 1982. On the night of 25 July 1982 a sabotage attack on Thornhill Airbase damaged four Hawks, nine Hunters and a single FTB-337G. One Hawk was written off, another was repaired on site and the other two were returned to BAE for a rebuild. A follow-up order for five additional Hawks was completed in September 1992.'
Great talk again! Unfortunately in this world whether it be private sector, public sector or the army often there are clueless muppets in high up critical positions to the detriment of progress or positive outcomes
Ja. Geopolitics in Southern Africa. My Old Man predicted the whole mess circa 1974. His view was that black majority rule was inevitable, the only variable being the exact timing thereof. So we had to decide how much blood was going to be spilt to delay the process and if, in fact, the delay would result in a favourable outcome for the Europeans. I'm still not sure.
Great talk again with Andre . Just a question, in your series of talks and interviews, pre 1975 , are you able to talk to any of the Portuguese that some of the army was embedded or in liaison with?
Koos Loots and Barrett are touch points. I think that we should have trusted the Matabele and set them on a course that they would have understood, the conquest of land, women and children. We should have given them our utmost support and retaken Africa. All this outraged, defensive moral posturing doesn't work in Africa. Oh, and get our Afrikaaner kinfolk to read our Oera Linda. It shows our common roots. Yes, pre-history does matter. Since the fall of Rhodesia I have redefined myself on the Truth. I am a Saxon. Freya told us not to interfere in the affairs of her sister, Lyda's children. (The aBantu). We are to help them if they ask for help, but to go after them with fire and sward if they steal from us, (Are you listening, Poms?) As a Saxon I look around with dismay at how we are fooled by the Namestealers. (Oera Linda Reference)
H8s Dad would not have been 8nvolved with the 5.5s those were older guns. More likely the G5 and G6 guns developed in SA during the 1970s and 80s which are still world leading today.
Funny how De Klerk was seen as PW and Pik's more conservative opponent, supposedly representing the members of the NP who were unhappy with their treasonous and un-asked-for betrayals that they were undertaking. Considering the Bothas' enemy was destined to be even more treacherous to his electorate than they were.. says alot about the structure of power in Southern Africa at the end of the Cold War.
The Battle for Urungwe by an ex intel/bsap special branch chief padbury, which I will not honour with a capital letter to his name. He encapsulates the misinformation surrounding this area of genocide, violence and intimidation trying to justify his anti rhodesian political narrative which sides with the traitorous brit and american intelligence and propaganda of that era..
For an antidote to that book ,read Viscount Down ,by Keith Nell , an SAS operator suddenly turned Captain. I beleive he is dependable....worked with SB and auxillaries in Urungwe.
disagree SA could have kept Rhodesia going: no doubt we were an expensive burden, and SA was under additional threat from the 39th president regardless of Sasol: Rhodesia was utilized to the last expedient moment and then starved of fuel on instruction from DC, and capitulated. SA, herself then came under enoumous economic strain holding up apartheid on the civil front, and conducting a war in Angola on a shoe string ( only had 48 F1s, and had to in time augment service losses and maintenance with home built, lesser capable Cheetahs) as against later look down shoot down Migs, giving over air superiority the sheer monetary and exchange cost to SA (US defence budget alone then poss 300% of entire SA GDP) and ever increasing loss of life threatening the electorate's favour as well as ditto costs and life in all SA townships after 87 PW had determined the new SA at his 85 Rubicon speech which he reversed on the night ( assumed promoted by the CIA to hang in until the wall fell, as it did Nov 89, and by next year February, Nelson was released and the ANC unbanned so, I see any notion that SA could easily have held up Rhodesia, but didn't because the "Dutchmen" didn't like English speaking Rhodesians, as being preposterous to say the least SA, understandably, and as v likley guided by the likes of Oppenheimer and Herzof in the time planning requirement of Anglo's and de Beers immediate future in dislocating it's main business and stock market out of SA, which plan happened by about 2005 operated on the realm of SA's best (business) interests understand, in the 1980s, Anglo and de Beers paid 66% of all SA corporate tax, and were the main stayers, of keeping both the Rhodesian, and Angolan wars, funded, to their economic interests today, the reef's mines are 98% depleted, to some extent accelerated by the massive haste in extraction towards the late 80s
40,000 tons of gold ($2.6 quintrillon) about 25% of all the world's hard gold, has been mined out the Witwatersrand. this was used to build the western world's stock markets, resulting in the '29 crash and then the WW wars and wars since, notably after the promissory notes became Fiat in ' 71 with the abandoning of the gold standard, and to buy oil in the mid east with printed money Only 0.85% of the 2.6 quintrillon was left behind to develop Africa: a primevil case of exploititave extraction via colonisation if only another 5% of that was left behind in Africa for proper development, Africa would be in a completely different space today
Mr. Scheepers talks and episodes I enjoy and rewatch. There needs to be a movie made about his Life. The operations the Rhodesians (SAS, Selous Scouts & RLI) pulled off are nothing short of extraordinary.
Can listen to Andre all day long. So humble but speaks more sense than most. We all played our part, but we knew nothing of some of the ops that this warrior took part in and in many cases led. Thanks Andre and congrats to Hannes and John for allowing this hero “free reign “ to speak on all subjects. No doubt he still has more to offer.
For we lived and we died and we cried , for we could have done better and we could have done far worse. Walk tall Rhodesians for we did the best of what we could . It was definitely David versus Goliath . We shall always remember them and be grateful for their sacrifice ! Tatenda Andre , Hannes and John for these memories brought together for us all to remember and reflect on . Be it good or bad happy or sad , we did the best what we could have given the circumstances Rhodesia was up against ! Andre you did us proud and you are a fine soldier and officer . Much respect to you and thank you for coming back time and time again to share your views and experiences. 🙏🏻
A few years ago I read a comment from someone, that what was happening now in Britain, and the other western countries was gods judgement for what they had done to his people in Rhodesia , and South Africa , some would sneer at this. , but not me …! Best wishes Andre, Hannes, and John , from Belfast 🇬🇧
Or is it the Exact SAME people who brought down Rhodesia and South Africa, moving on to destroy other Anglo or Western countries..? because our enemies were no more British than they were Rhodesian.. but they would LOVE your confusion and your schadenfreude toward their new victims: Divide and Rule, always their strategy against us.
comments censored. why?
I think it’s the same evil crooks at work.
Mr Scheepers ur a very special man not mention a true warrior god bless u and ur family
thanks for your service Andre
I was eagerly anticipating this next instalment, Andre is such an affable bloke. I have no doubt he would have been a great guy to work under.
Outstanding 🤟😎
Fantastic. I really enjoy listening to Andre. He’s a good chap.
Excellent Andre and Hannes.
Thank you.
Dankie Andre, John en Hannes. Leroy Duberley who lost his life at Mapai was a upcomming Springblok rugby player
Leroy had been playing for Rhodesia from 1972 at full back and there were no series for So
Springbok series from 76-80 and Gysie Pienaar had that position in 80. I don't agree with your comment as good as Leroy was that he was an upcoming Springbok.
Great analysis!
Outstanding 😎
As was joked about Pik Botha - “these are my principles and if you don’t like them - I have others😂😂😂
Alcoholic in the wrong position
A sellout liar who eventually handed South Africa over to the forces of evil!!
Great comments Andre. Sadly the Rhodesian soldier and NCOs would never back down from a fight and more often than not the Officers made the wise choices!
Have had the privilege of meeting Andre...what a wonderful man. An example of a true leader. Thank you for your service to so many. Blessings
Thanks Hannes and Andre for this amazing interview. Something I have always wondered about since reading your book is the 2MOA requirement. I have an all original FAL from the mid70 here in Luxembourg and I find it very hard to shoot a 2 MOA Group. It is roughly a 3 MOA rifle with normal ammunition.
Thanks gents, interesting history and insights.
A question on the Gweru attack on Thornhill and who was the driving force behind it.
I recall an earlier episode on this channel where the raid and the aftermath was discussed, as well as the subsequent mistreatment and imprisonment of the white officers at the time.
It has been widely speculated all over after the fact that SADF were involved, but here Andre briefly says' that we destroyed' speaking to the aircraft. Excuse me if I have made a 1+1=11 calculation but it would be interesting to know more, or if there is an episode that speaks directly to this Operation I have missed, perhaps direct me there.
Many thanks
Excerpt from the SA Truth commission below.
"Zimbabwean agents and SADF Special Forces operatives were involved in the attack on the Thornhill airforce base near Gweru on 25 July 1982, in which thirteen fighter trainers of the Zimbabwe Air Force were destroyed. Four senior air force officers, including Air Vice-Marshall Hugh Slatter, were arrested for this operation. Under torture, they confessed their involvement but were acquitted when the trial judge deemed their confessions inadmissible. They were almost certainly not involved. Evidence gathered by the Commission suggests that this operation was undertaken by a South African Special Forces group led by a long-serving member of the Recces operating as an agent in Zimbabwe. The Commission has the names of four SADF Special Forces operatives who participated in that attack."
Thanks Andre & Hannes. Do you not think that the loss of Puma 164, was a big influence on Walls to pull the pin on the Operation and withdraw? The loss of 164 had a massive effect on Civilian morale once the news broke and I can imagine that a huge amount of pressure would have been brought to bear on Walls to withdraw. Secondly, I would imagine that SA could not have been charmed that they had lost one of their Pumas that the International community would have been all over them for such overt support. Finally, Andre you hit the nail directly in your observation that there were no stop groups to the rear of Mapai.
I was at Villa Salazar when the aircraft went down , and always wondered how a "Dakota" could be landing at an enemy airstrip....!
Semper Fi Andre Scheepers!
Hannes, reading Taki's column in his magazine recently, he made a very favourable mention about you, claiming you'll make a better action hero than Mel Gibson! Small world. Thanks for a great channel.
Great again. War of any kind is a compex issue and is affected by your role in it.
Variables are enourmous and personalities make decisions from their perspective of the issue at hand.
My opinion is that the senior heirarcy were so used to the rhodesian soldier winning most battles failed to see the changing times of vastly improved opposition.
But hindsight is always easy.
🎉Thank you, Guy's 🎉
Absolutely correct, senior leaders like Politicians and Generals should dictate policy - that's all, that's enough.
Strategy needs to be left to operational leaders, Colonels and Majors...the people that know what resources are available to best enact policy in light of the intel on enemy resources.
Tactics should be left to leaders who will be on the ground and in the fight, Captains and Lieutenants....what good ever came from a General dipping into other people's specialisms?
That's what ranks are for surely?
The truth is, every army, in every war - has Generals, who were promoted up the ranks - who can't help themselves, they can't stop interfering in the work of their Colonels and Majors.....and some of those can't stop interfering in the work of Captains.
Poor old Lieutenants - getting it in the ear from Captain's and Sergeants 🤣😂
I prefer this sort of analysis to just hearing tales of derring-do. A downside of being a snall army was that the senior officers were the least experienced ito the current war.
John Borrowdale was (hopefully still is) a delightful guy! A veterinarian, I had the pleasure of being with (and Rich Stannard) on Course 160D at School of Inf. He was posted, I think, to one of the indep companies, so to learn that he ended up in the Squadron is excellent, if unsurprising, news. He, Rich and Mike Ross were the chaps clearly destined to do well beyond Hooters and prove themselves where it really mattered.
Borrowdale and Stannard also attended the same 1(R)SAS Short Course selection end of Nov 1978.
Thanks very much Angus for filling in this piece of the puzzle for me. It would not shock me to learn that you were either an instructor or a participant on that course!@@angushamilton2077
Thanks Angus - this is helpful. I would not be shocked to learn that you were either an instructor or a participant on that course!@@angushamilton2077
@John van Zyl Great series, the Rhodesian okes can certainly hold their heads high, an amazing bunch of guys, thank you. Do you not by any chance have an interview with Green Leader? I note that he has passed on c. 2011 but from the videos of Ops Gatling, I wld love to hear him? All the best, keep it going, very enjoyable.
Watch episode 77, 78 and 79 with Greg Todd who flew with Green Leader. Here is the link th-cam.com/video/xrLKpu3Yxy8/w-d-xo.html
Thk you, much appreciated, thoroughly enjoyable series.
According to Wikipedia: 'In 1981, the Air Force of Zimbabwe ordered 8 eight Hawk MK60s, which were delivered in July 1982. On the night of 25 July 1982 a sabotage attack on Thornhill Airbase damaged four Hawks, nine Hunters and a single FTB-337G. One Hawk was written off, another was repaired on site and the other two were returned to BAE for a rebuild. A follow-up order for five additional Hawks was completed in September 1992.'
Sorry. You are correct. A typo error. I meant 13 aircraft
So what sort of air force do they have now (18/5/2024)??
Great talk again! Unfortunately in this world whether it be private sector, public sector or the army often there are clueless muppets in high up critical positions to the detriment of progress or positive outcomes
Ja. Geopolitics in Southern Africa. My Old Man predicted the whole mess circa 1974. His view was that black majority rule was inevitable, the only variable being the exact timing thereof. So we had to decide how much blood was going to be spilt to delay the process and if, in fact, the delay would result in a favourable outcome for the Europeans. I'm still not sure.
Great talk again with Andre . Just a question, in your series of talks and interviews, pre 1975 , are you able to talk to any of the Portuguese that some of the army was embedded or in liaison with?
I know we have had someone talk about this but can't remember who exactly. Perhaps it was Darrell Watt? th-cam.com/video/DBGM2CsTNDQ/w-d-xo.html
@@fightingmenofrhodesia I remember that one . Super interesting,. Thanks
The gold time
Koos Loots and Barrett are touch points.
I think that we should have trusted the Matabele and set them on a course that they would have understood, the conquest of land, women and children.
We should have given them our utmost support and retaken Africa.
All this outraged, defensive moral posturing doesn't work in Africa.
Oh, and get our Afrikaaner kinfolk to read our Oera Linda. It shows our common roots. Yes, pre-history does matter.
Since the fall of Rhodesia I have redefined myself on the Truth.
I am a Saxon.
Freya told us not to interfere in the affairs of her sister, Lyda's children. (The aBantu). We are to help them if they ask for help, but to go after them with fire and sward if they steal from us, (Are you listening, Poms?)
As a Saxon I look around with dismay at how we are fooled by the Namestealers. (Oera Linda Reference)
H8s Dad would not have been 8nvolved with the 5.5s those were older guns. More likely the G5 and G6 guns developed in SA during the 1970s and 80s which are still world leading today.
What is the name of the man in blue shirt? I want to find his interview👍
Thanks!
Which one in a blue shirt? Andre Scheepers is wearing a blue shirt...
Hi John, I see now that Andre is wearing a blue shirt also. My bad, but I was refering to the other man at 32 min😊
Stan Standish-White Ep50 th-cam.com/video/KYHE4NSyKzA/w-d-xo.html
Thank you John👍 I have watched many many episodes, great work👍
Withdrawal was the only option.
A lot of greatful mothers.
Pik Botha did not like SA either
Funny how De Klerk was seen as PW and Pik's more conservative opponent, supposedly representing the members of the NP who were unhappy with their treasonous and un-asked-for betrayals that they were undertaking. Considering the Bothas' enemy was destined to be even more treacherous to his electorate than they were.. says alot about the structure of power in Southern Africa at the end of the Cold War.
He only liked himself and his bottle
What is the book you refer to at min 20 so I can avoid it. The one that is revisionist and critical of Smith and Rhodesia.
The Battle for Urungwe by an ex intel/bsap special branch chief padbury, which I will not honour with a capital letter to his name. He encapsulates the misinformation surrounding this area of genocide, violence and intimidation trying to justify his anti rhodesian political narrative which sides with the traitorous brit and american intelligence and propaganda of that era..
@@TheBushmanmikepadbury was probably already in the pockets of MI6.
For an antidote to that book ,read Viscount Down ,by Keith Nell , an SAS operator suddenly turned Captain.
I beleive he is dependable....worked with SB and auxillaries in Urungwe.
Fascinating analysis. Thank you 👍🏻
@@TheBushmanmikewell said Mike. Hope you & Cheryl are both well
If I may make a comment , Pik Botha was was a dronkgat!!! with no back bone!!!!
disagree SA could have kept Rhodesia going: no doubt we were an expensive burden, and SA was under additional threat from the 39th president regardless of Sasol: Rhodesia was utilized to the last expedient moment and then starved of fuel on instruction from DC, and capitulated. SA, herself then came under enoumous economic strain holding up apartheid on the civil front, and conducting a war in Angola on a shoe string ( only had 48 F1s, and had to in time augment service losses and maintenance with home built, lesser capable Cheetahs) as against later look down shoot down Migs, giving over air superiority
the sheer monetary and exchange cost to SA (US defence budget alone then poss 300% of entire SA GDP)
and ever increasing loss of life threatening the electorate's favour
as well as ditto costs and life in all SA townships after 87
PW had determined the new SA at his 85 Rubicon speech which he reversed on the night ( assumed promoted by the CIA to hang in until the wall fell, as it did Nov 89, and by next year February, Nelson was released and the ANC unbanned
so, I see any notion that SA could easily have held up Rhodesia, but didn't because the "Dutchmen" didn't like English speaking Rhodesians, as being preposterous to say the least
SA, understandably, and as v likley guided by the likes of Oppenheimer and Herzof in the time planning requirement of Anglo's and de Beers immediate future in dislocating it's main business and stock market out of SA, which plan happened by about 2005
operated on the realm of SA's best (business) interests
understand, in the 1980s, Anglo and de Beers paid 66% of all SA corporate tax, and were the main stayers, of keeping both the Rhodesian, and Angolan wars, funded, to their economic interests
today, the reef's mines are 98% depleted, to some extent accelerated by the massive haste in extraction towards the late 80s
40,000 tons of gold ($2.6 quintrillon) about 25% of all the world's hard gold, has been mined out the Witwatersrand.
this was used to build the western world's stock markets, resulting in the '29 crash and then the WW wars and wars since, notably after the promissory notes became Fiat in ' 71 with the abandoning of the gold standard, and to buy oil in the mid east with printed money
Only 0.85% of the 2.6 quintrillon was left behind to develop Africa: a primevil case of exploititave extraction via colonisation
if only another 5% of that was left behind in Africa for proper development, Africa would be in a completely different space today
@@haz7195 Extremely interesting, thank you.
What happened to them after the war? Just curious